Hey, hey, hey! Welcome back, sorry if you don't remember anything. I barely edited this chapter so i'm sorry for it, but I really wanted to get it out to you guys. I really hope you enjoy it and go back to avidly reading this story. I know since I posted my last note about continuing i did gain a few followers, so I'm hoping that keeps up. Please enjoy!

Today was the day. She would do it. She was strong. She was mighty. Mighty McKinnon. She

Liked the sound of that.

Back on track, McKinnon, she scolded herself. Stay focused.

She walked through the corridors, forcing her legs to keep moving. She was almost there. She could see the door.

She stopped right outside of it and took a deep breath. It would be okay. Everything would be okay.

She reached out a hand and opened the door. She saw her siblings, already waiting for her. They were in an empty classroom that hadn't been used in years.

"Why are we here Marlene?" Valerie asked.

"It's a waste of a Saturday," David added.

"Trust me," Marlene said, weakly, "it isn't."

"What's wrong?" Bradley asked.

"You know how I told you about our parents not making contact, and then you guys said you trusted me?" Marlene asked.

They nodded silently.

"Well, Dumbledore contacted the Ministry," Marlene said. She hesitated for a few seconds before forcing out the next sentence: "They haven't had contact with mom and dad in months, either."

Silence settled over the room like a blanket. It was a minute before Bradley broke the silence.

"So, are they… dead?" he asked hoarsely, tears welling in his eyes.

"We don't know," Marlene said quickly. "The Ministry is looking into it."

"And what if they are dead?" Valerie asked.

"What will happen to us?" David added.

"Dumbledore worked that out with the Ministry," Marlene said. "If they are dead, I will take care of you."

"So, you'll be our new parent?" Valerie asked.

"Like a new mom?" David added.

"A legal guardian," Marlene corrected Valerie. She then corrected David: "And, more like a 'sister who wants her siblings not to be separated, so she agrees to take care of them in the event of their parents' deaths.'"

They were all quiet. "I'm scared, Marly," Bradley said.

Marlene sighed. "So am I, Brad. But we'll be fine. I mean, it's not like this is actually happening. Like Dumbledore said, this is just a 'worst case scenario.'"

"And what if it becomes real?" Valerie said.

"What if they are dead?" David clarified.

"Then we have a plan," Marlene said. "One thing's for sure; we will not be separated."

"Promise?" Bradley asked.

"Promise."

xoxo

In the early days of December, McGonagall went around taking down the names of which students were leaving and which students were staying for the holidays.

Valerie and David went up to Marlene in the library.

"Hi Marlene," Valerie said, sweetly.

"Your tone implies that you want something," Marlene said, annoyed.

"We were just thinking—" Valerie started.

"—since mom and dad aren't around—" David continued.

"—then there's no point—"

"—and no real reason—"

"—that we should have to—"

They seemed both not want to say something, and kept setting the other up to say it. Finally, Marlene said, "Just spit it out."

"—go home," they said together.

There was a silence that settled in which Marlene became extremely upset. "What?"

The twins looked at her with equal expressions on their faces—wide eyes and paler skin than normal.

"Guys," Marlene said, trying to keep calm. "Christmas is about going home and spending time with family."

"But this is home," Valerie argued.

"And one-third of our family isn't here," David added.

"We are going home. All of us. Bradley wanted to go home. We're going home. We are not separating, remember?" Marlene said.

"But that house—" Valerie said.

"—it's so big—" David added.

"—and without mom and dad—"

"—it won't feel like home."

"I know, but that's something we will have to work through, but you are not staying," Marlene said. "None of us are."

The twins stormed away without another word.

Later, Marlene went to Professor McGonagall.

"I just wanted you to know that all the McKinnons will be going home over holiday," Marlene told McGonagall.

The older woman frowned. "Is there a reason you came to tell me yourself? For all of them?" she asked.

"The twins have this idea in their head that they are staying here for the break," Marlene explained.

"And you don't want that?" McGonagall asked.

"We already decided we were all going home," Marlene told her. "We also decided that we were not splitting up."

McGonagall sighed. "Very well, Miss McKinnon. I will put them down for leaving."

"Thank you, Professor."

xoxo

Eli went up to Professor McGonagall at the end of class. Professor McGonagall looked up at her with mild interest. Eli felt suddenly self-aware.

"Professor," Eli said. "I just wanted to tell you that I'll be going home for the holidays."

McGonagall pulled out a piece of parchment and wrote down Eli's name. "Very well, Miss Smith," she said.

"Also, I was just wondering if my sister was going home or not?" Eli asked tentatively.

McGonagall's eyes scanned the parchment. "Yes, Teresa Smith. Going home."

Eli sighed, relieved. "Okay, thank you."

She left the room, moving down the hall. She went to the Gryffindor common room and looked around. She spotted Janet Cliff, Terri's friend. Eli ran over to her.

"Hey, have you seen Terri?" she asked Janet.

Janet looked up at her with wide eyes. "Um, why?"

"Because she's my sister and I want to know," Eli said, annoyed.

"Look, Eli, I like you, I do. But I was instructed never to tell you where Terri was if you asked," she said.

"What? Why?" Eli asked.

"Well, you were kind of a jerk to her," Janet said.

"I am not! I mean, I was not! Ugh! I'll find her myself!" Eli said. She turned around and stormed through the common room. "If any of you see my sister, tell me!" she called out.

As she slammed the portrait hole open—earning a lecture from the Fat Lady that she ignored—she saw someone jump back to avoid being hit.

"What the hell?" Both Eli and the person she almost hit said the same phrase at the same time.

"Eli? Geez, are you trying to kill me?" Eli saw that it was Eric Tomkins standing in front of her.

"Shut it," Eli said, "I'm angry."

She started to storm away. "No, no, it's fine," Eric called after her. "You don't need to apologize!"

Eli whipped her head around, her dark curls spiraling around her. "You think I'm going to apologize?"

"That's usually what people do," Eric said.

"No," Eli said. "I'm too upset to apologize."

"Why?" Eric asked.

Eli suddenly had an idea. "Have you seen my sister?" she asked.

"Um, no," Eric said, confused.

"Merlin, you really are useless," Eli said.

"Eli," Eric said, before she walked away.

"What?!" she snarled.

"Don't talk to her while you're this angry," Eric suggested.

"Yeah, thanks, Dumbledore," she said, sarcastically.

"It was just a suggestion. Merlin, why are you such a bitch?" Eric asked.

"Because I am!" Eli screamed before walking away.

She walked through the corridors calling out Terri's name. It was a last resort. But after about an hour, she gave up and went back to the Common Room.

xoxo

"Hey, Moony," Sirius said from across the dormitory, "do you think if you ate Wormtail whole while you were a werewolf and he was a rat and then he became a human while you were a human, then you would explode from the inside?"

James, Remus, and Peter stared at Sirius with various looks of horror.

"It was just a question," Sirius said.

"Please don't let me eat Wormtail," Remus said to James.

"Please don't let Sirius feed me to Moony," Peter said to James.

"Merlin! It was just a hypothetical question! I'm not going to feed anyone to anybody!" Sirius defended. "But I will if you keep talking like that!"

Remus looked out the window. "The sun's getting low," he said softly. "I should get going."

"We'll be right there with you!" Peter told him.

"And we won't let James lead this time!" Sirius told him.

"And I won't let Sirius feed you Wormtail," James said.

As Remus shut the door, the last thing he heard was Sirius saying, "I swear to Merlin!"

Remus made his way down to the Hospital Wing and knocked on Madam Pomfrey's door.

"Oh, my! You're here early!" she said, opening the door. "Let me just get my coat. Do you need one dear?"

"No, thank you," Remus said, trying to get this over with.

"Fine. But don't complain about the cold," Pomfrey said warningly.

"I won't."

They walked quickly out of the castle and onto the grounds. It was bitterly cold out, but Remus didn't seem to notice. He could feel the moon rising.

xoxo

James followed Sirius through the woods. Sirius never went very fast. About three of his strides equaled one of Remus's, so usually the wolf just casually walked along whenever Sirius led.

James didn't like this because Remus would get bored and bite or scratch them. Or worse, he would bite and scratch himself.

Nevertheless, they moved through the woods without incident, until they saw something.

Remus was the first to notice, his ears pricking and his body halting. They had not encountered wildlife in a while, so they were immediately alert upon seeing Remus's reaction.

They hoped it wasn't a unicorn. Remus loved to hunt unicorns as a wolf, but they had to take extra measures to ensure he didn't. It was far too dangerous to do that, and drinking the blood was far worse.

They looked through the trees to see what they had stumbled upon. They saw a centaur looking at them. He stood in a clearing, the moonlight shining on him.

Remus ran up to him, causing the centaur to rear on his hind legs. "Calm yourself, wolf," he said.

Remus, responding to the centaur, moved back and looked up at the creature.

They had met this centaur before, a few times. Last time, it had been the last full moon of their fifth year. They walked up to meet him.

James felt Peter run down his leg and into the grass. Within the next few seconds, Peter was a human before him.

Peter walked up to the centaur.

"Ah, Short One, I remember you," the centaur said.

Peter laughed nervously. "Yeah, 'Short One.' You know I have a name, right?"

"Yes," the centaur said, "but you and your friends insist on calling me 'Centuar,' so I call you by the names I chose to."

"That's fair," Peter said.

"I see you are taking your werewolf out for a walk," the centaur said, watching James constantly jump out of the way of Remus's claws and teeth.

"Yeah," Peter said. "That werewolf thing. It kinda happens every month."

"Does he ever hurt you? In his wolf form?"

"Sometimes," Peter said, confused as to why the question was being asked. "Mostly James and Sirius, though."

"And you are alright with this?"

"Yeah."

"Why?" the centaur asked, as Sirius pounced on Remus and they wrestled on the ground.

"Because," Peter said, as if it were obvious, "he's our friend. And we will gladly take a few scratches on us over cuts on him."

The centaur peered at Peter. "You have classes tomorrow, yes?"

Peter looked at him. "Uh, yeah?"

The centaur looked back at Remus. He stomped his hooves on the ground. A mouse jumped out of the ground and peered around.

Remus, sensing the mouse, turned and started chasing it around.

"You two," the centaur said, pointing at James and Sirius. "Change."

They looked at each other before changing into their human forms. "What?" James asked.

"You three need sleep for your classes. Return to the castle. I will look after your werewolf," the centaur said.

"Yeah, no way," James said.

"Why would we just give him up? To you especially?!" Sirius said.

"I will make sure he is back in his shack by sunrise. You may trust me," the centaur said.

"Why can we trust you?" Peter asked. "We barely know you!"

"I am a nonhuman creature. I would enjoy the company of your werewolf," the centaur said.

Remus chased the mouse back into its hole and pawed at the earth when it didn't come out again. He started to whine.

"And I'm sure he would enjoy my company," the centaur added.

Remus sniffed the side of the creature in front of them.

Then, the centaur turned his head to them and said, almost sadly, "Please."

James sighed. "Fine," he said.

"What?!" Sirius and Peter screeched at the same time.

"Well, he's not going to hurt him!" James defended. "I say we trust him."

"No," Sirius said.

"James, we don't know him!" Peter said.

"All the more reason to take a chance. It's not like we're signing over his soul, or giving him to Snivellus!" James said.

"Come on!" Sirius said. "You would just give him up?"

"I promise a safe return of him," the centaur said.

"He's not some trinket we can just loan away. Or a pet we can let stay over a friend's house!" Sirius said.

"But he told me to!" James said.

There was a pause.

"Who told you to do what?" Peter asked.

"Remus!" James said. "Last time we saw The Centaur, Remus told me that he trusted him. He said to trust him as well. Remus trusts him. So do I."

There was a brief moment of thought before Peter said, "I trust him."

Sirius huffed. "Fine," he said. "But I don't like it."

"Thank you, I promise your werewolf will be fine," the centaur said.

James turned into a stag and ran into the woods. Sirius turned to The Centaur. "He better be," he said. He turned into a dog and let Peter climb onto him before running after James.

xoxo

The Marauders, despite having trusted—or semi-trusted—The Centaur, were all relieved to see Remus safe and sound in the hospital wing the next morning. The only one who didn't admit it was James.

They told Remus about The Centaur. He didn't seem surprised, but he did ask how long it took for them to say yes.

"Well, James was ready to hand you over with the feeding directions," Sirius said.

"Actually," James said, "I didn't want to. But you told me to, Moony. I might not have trusted him, but I do trust you."

Remus smiled. "Thank you, Prongs."

"Oi! You three! Out, out, out!" Pomfrey waddled into the room, shooing them out.

"Madam Pomfrey, aren't you the vision of beauty and grace on this fine morning, did you do something different with—" Sirius was cut off by a door being slammed in his face.

"I'm sorry," James said to them.

"It's okay, Prongs," Peter said.

"Yeah, I mean, Moony obviously wanted you to do what you did, so we can't be mad. But why did he only tell you?" Sirius asked.

"Because when he told me, you two were in detention," James said.

"Oh, yeah," Sirius remembered fondly.

"For going into the girls bathroom," Peter said, making the three of them laugh.

Xoxo

"Eli. Eli. Eli! Wake up!"

Eli jumped about a foot, her face lifting off of her arms, her arms splaying out on the table to hold her upright. "What? Where am I?"

She heard giggling and a voice say, "The common room? It's midnight El." Eli looked up to see Terri standing above her.

Eli had always been jealous of her sister. Despite Eli's mean and confident exterior, she was actually quite self-conscience, and had a rather low self-esteem. Her hips and shoulders were larger than the rest of her and her stomach was bigger than she would have liked. And her chest and butt were way too pronounced. Her hair was extremely thick and had wavy curls. Yes, this meant she didn't have to brush it in the morning, but there wasn't much she could do with it. And it always got in the way. And when it was humid out, it frizzed worse than anything. Her hair and eyes were a muddy brown, her lips were too big, and she was shorter than most.

Terri, on the other hand, was perfect in Eli's eyes. Her body had slight curves that weren't overstated and her stomach was flat. Her chest was smaller, but not flat, and her butt was actually proportional to her body. Her hair was a lighter brown and straight. It was shorter than Eli's, but she put it up in different styles every day. It never frizzed or caused her any problems. Her eyes were a hazel color, her lips were smaller and the middle of them made a perfect heart. And, while she was shorter than average, she didn't look stubby, like Eli did.

"I must've fallen asleep," Eli said. Then, realizing she hadn't spoken to Terri in months, she said, "Hi."

Terri laughed. Even her laugh is better, Eli thought. "Hey, El," Terri said, sitting down across from her. "I heard you were looking for me. But everyone who told me that also said that you were mad, so I waited a few days."

"You told Janet Cliff never to tell me where you are," Eli explained.

"That was months ago," Terri said, not meeting Eli's eyes. "I said that back when you were being—"

"A bitch?" Eli supplied.

"I was going to say jerk," Terri said. There was a brief moment of silence before Terri said, "So why did you want to talk to me?"

"Oh!" Eli said suddenly, feeling stupid for forgetting. "I just wanted to say sorry. That argument was stupid and we shouldn't have been involved anyway."

"No!" Terri said. "You have no reason to be sorry. If either of us should be sorry, it's me. Even if we shouldn't have been in it, I was on the wrong side of the argument."

"There is no right and wrong side to these things, Ter," Eli said.

"Yes, there is. And I want to also say thank you," Terri said.

Eli raised an eyebrow. "'Thank you?'" she repeated absently.

"Yeah," Terri said softly. "I realized after we got to Hogwarts. Dad, he… he hurt mom, didn't he?"

Eli sighed. She had tried so hard not to let Terri know. "Yes."

"And he…" Terri had tears in her eyes now. "…he hurt you too, didn't he?"

Eli closed her eyes. "Yes." Her voice was hoarse and quiet, but Terri heard her clearly.

"Thank you for not telling me," Terri said. "Thank you for trying to protect me."

Eli nodded. "I just never wanted you to get hurt," she said, sadly.

"I just can't believe that you held your tongue while I defended that monster. And just to protect me! I was so self-centered. I'm sorry," Terri said.

"No, Terri!" It's not your fault!" Eli said. "You just didn't know."

Terri hesitated, then said, "Are you coming home for the holidays?"

Eli smiled. "Of course I am! I wouldn't abandon my favourite person on the Earth!" Eli said.

"You knew I was going home?"

"I asked McGonagall to make sure. I wanted to apologize before our argument ruined Christmas," Eli said.

"It wouldn't have ruined Christmas. Mom would have yelled at us to put it on hold until after we come back to Hogwarts," Terri laughed.

Eli laughed too, because Terri was right. "Alright, kid," Eli said. "I need to go to sleep. You should too."

Terri nodded.

As Eli started to walk away, she remembered something. "Terri?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"What made you start to get better?" Eli asked. "After I wouldn't talk to you."

"Actually," Terri said, blushing, "James helped me."

"Oh my God! What did he do!?" she asked quickly.

"He was just really sweet and he talked to me and made me eat," Terri's face was bright red by the end.

Eli groaned, being painfully reminded of her sister's large and obvious crush on James. "Good night Terri."

Terri smiled genuinely. "Good night, El."

Thanks for reading! As always, tell me what you like, tell me what you hate. Leave a review, follow, an/or favourite because these things make me happy and inspire me to write. Hope you guys are good and having a great day/year/life. See you next time!

~Jill
MissSlytherinxoxo

XOXO